Full Metal Jacket and War

Full Metal Jacket hit the big screen in 1987 and has been considered by many to be one of the most realistic accounts of Vietnam and the life of an infantryman. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Matthew Modine as the 18 year old Pvt. James T. “Joker” Davis who is also the narrator of the film. The film is based off of Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers which was released in 1979. The film has been praised by viewers both for and against the war in Vietnam. The film was shot completely in England, devoid of any U.S. military aid for funding or props. He gathered rifles from a licensed arms dealer, and got tanks from a Belgian army colonel who was a fan of his previous films. Full Metal Jacket’s objective view of war allowed for viewers to look deeper into the soldiers who train for and fight in these wars. Kubrick accomplishes this feat by splitting the film in to two distinct sections, the first set at Parris Island, South Carolina, where Pvt. Joker receives basic training. The second section takes place in Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive, where Pvt. Joker is now a war photographer, and begins to experience war firsthand. Overarching these two sections is Kubrick’s message to his viewers: that war itself is not a terrible thing, but the process of morphing men into soldiers is an act of dehumanization, built upon tropes of masculinity to make soldiers emotionless killing machines.

In the opening sequence of the film we see the beginning of this process of dehumanization, where Drill Instructor Hartmann molds his recruits through emotional and physical abuse to make them more efficient killers. He acknowledges the successes of murderers like Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Whitman, whose military expertise allowed them to assassinate and gun down people from afar. Private Leonard Lawrence (called Pvt. Pyle throughout the film due to his comedic stature) is the tragic example of dehumanization gone wrong. As a mentally slow, overweight recruit we see Pyle struggle to accomplish obstacle courses or curb his appetite, causing his whole unit to resent him. As a function of masculinity, his unit asserts their dominance over him to get him to work harder. While he is sleeping his unit bounds him to the bed and beats him with socks filled with a bar of soap. The beating works, but further steals away his humanity, pushing him to the brink of complete mental collapse, which Pvt. Joker acknowledges but is unable to curb. Upon graduation, Joker is glad to see that Pyle has made it through basic training, but later that night is shocked to find him in the bathroom with a loaded M14. The situation escalates and Pyle ends up shooting Drill Instructor Hartmann and himself. Prior to being shot, DI Hartmann asks “What is your major malfunction?!” acknowledging that Pyle is supposed to be a well oiled killing machine, not breaking down like he is.

Pyle’s Malfunction:

Later in Vietnam, we see Joker surrounded by soldiers who do not use their own names, because their actual use would make them too human. He is mocked for not having the “thousand yard stare” which is proof that one has been in combat. Joker’s reluctance to let his photographer Rafterman get into combat shows that he does not necessarily want to be in combat. Joker works hard to retain his humanity, wearing a peace sign on his helmet and the words “born to kill” written on the front he acknowledges that men are diverse creatures, not built to be mindless killing machines. The title Full Metal Jacket is in fact a personification of what these soldiers are. They have become cold and lifeless, only around to kill. Being the hero of the film, Joker succeeds at retaining his humanity, but at the cost of several of his fellow soldiers.

Sources:

Full Metal Jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Produced by Stanley Kubrick. By Stanley Kubrick, Michael Herr, and Gustav Hasford. Performed by Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Lee Ermey.